Posts Tagged ‘Painting’

“Murders and elf-friends!” the Great Goblin shouted. “Slash them! Beat them! Bite them! Gnash them! Take them away to dark holes full of snakes, and never let them see the light again!” He was in such a rage that he jumped off his seat and himself rushed at Thorin with his mouth open.

Here is the latest denizen of Middle Earth to come off my painting table: the Great Goblin (apparently referred to as the ‘Goblin King’ in New Line’s merchandising). I loved the portrayal of the Great Goblin in the film (ably played by Barry Humphies) and GW’s model captures the character perfectly. It is a fantastic model which has some great textures considering the fact that it is plastic.

For the colour scheme I tried to stick as closely as possible to the concept art for the character as seen in Brian Sibley’s excellent An Unexpected Journey Official Movie Guide (definitely recommended as a reference for anyone painting Hobbit models). The only time we see the Great Goblin in the film is in scenes lit by torchlight and so the film stills weren’t a reliable guide to painting him. See below to find out how I went about painting him

Detail on the skull:

Gruesome severed heads adorn the scepter:

A close-up of the crown. Note the painted-on chips and scratches:

The Great Goblin with some of his minions:

Painting the Great Goblin

The skin was basecoated with Tallarn Flesh. Even though most of this stage would be completely painted over on the finished model it would give the skin tone an underlying warmth. This is because even though the Great Goblin is pallid and unhealthy he is not a zombie or Nurgle model and so should still look as though he is alive.

The skin was then painted with a 50/50 mix of Tallarn Flesh and Space Wolf Grey. This was washed with Ogryn Flesh mixed with Lahmian Medium and allowed to dry. This was followed by more targeted washes applied directly to the recesses using Ogryn Flesh and Agrax Earthshade. I then highlighted the skin with the original flesh mix with increasing amounts of white added.

The purple/red lesions on the skin were glazed using a mix of Leviathan Purple and Tallarn Flesh. The yellowish areas were glazed with Seraphim Sepia. At this stage the skin was looking a little too warm and so was glazed with thinned down Guilliman Blue in order to give it a slightly cooler tone.

The lesions on the skin were built up further by adding glazes of Leviathan Purple, Bloodletter, Ogryn Flesh and Seraphim Sepia. I tried to copy the look of real bruises.

In order to make the model look really disgusting (more so than he already was) and to add visual interest to such a large model I painted veins and texture on the areas of bruised and broken skin as can be seen in the close-ups below. This was done with a mix of Scab Red and Leviathan purple. Veins were also painted on the undamaged skin using Guilliman blue. The blue veins were then glazed over using Tallarn Flesh and then Pallid Wych Flesh. This was to tone the colour down and to make them appear to be beneath the surface of the skin.

The face was highlighted by adding Pallid Wych Flesh to Tallarn Flesh and working up to pure Wych Flesh. The eyes and mouth were then glazed blue and purple. The eyes were painted Pallid Wych Flesh and the irises were painted using Ballor Brown edged with Mournfang Brown. The pupils were painted in black.

All in all a suitably disgusting and grotesque paint job for such a foul character. Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

Black is often considered a difficult colour to paint and it was one that I was reluctant to paint for many years. However, recently I have painted large areas of black on quite a few different models and so different methods of painting black have been on my mind of late. As with any painting techniques, there are a number of ways to paint black and those below are just a couple that I have found useful. Remember, there is no right or wrong way to go about painting a particular colour, just whatever works for you.

Initial Thoughts

In real life no surface is truly black. By this I mean that black is an absence of all visible light. Any surface that reflects light is not really black in the truest sense. This makes painting black easier as we can see how light plays off ‘black’ surfaces and try to replicate this on our models. If you look closely at black clothes you will see that they often have a blue, grey or even brown hue to them; this is particularly evident if they are old and showing signs of wear. Other objects such as black plastic or metal have a less obvious hue to them and reflect light differently as they tend to be more glossy. When painting part of a model black think about what kind of surface it is and how it reflects the light. Generally speaking, hard surfaces such as armour or weapons will have sharper highlights whereas soft surfaces will need more gradual blending.

General Principles

Black is a difficult colour to paint as you cannot shade black – there is no darker paint. As a result it can be flat and lifeless or, if over highlighted, it can end up looking grey. Because of this you should avoid using black as a mid-tone. Instead mix Chaos Black (or whatever other brand of paints you are using) with one or more other colours in order to get a very dark basecoat that appears to be black to the eye but can still be shaded with black paint.

When it comes to doing this you will need to consider the overall appearance of the model. In addition to thinking about what kind of material the area you want to represent is made of, think about your overall colour scheme and how the black areas will work with this. Although this may sound odd, what kind of black are you wanting to use? Do you want your black tone to be warm or cold? Are there any other colours on the model that you want to work into the black? For example, my Nazgul and Vampire count are both painted to have areas of black cloth but both use very different tones in order to set the mood of the model.

The Nazgul is painted using warm colours in order to achieve a more realistic look to the robes and match the look of the Ringwraiths in the films. The Vampire, on the other hand, was painted with a cold palette in order to give him a lifeless, undead feel. Also, the dark blue of the cloak suggests the night sky – very appropriate for a vampire. My Eldar Farseer (pictured below) had his cloak painted using the same technique in order to contrast with the warm tones of the red and gold on the rest of the model. The blue tint to the cloak also ties it in with the other areas of blue on the figure.

The Nazgul was painted using a mix of Chaos Black and Kommando Khaki which was applied over a Chaos Black undercoat. I painted this on all but the deepest recesses in order to leave some shading. This was then highlighted by adding more Khaki to the mix. This gives a much softer colour than adding white or grey to the mix which could end up looking quite stark. In addition to this, the Khaki paint has less pigment than other Citadel paints and allows colours to be built up gradually in layers. A similar technique was used on some of my other Mordor models. However, the orc’s clothes and the troll’s leather bracer were basecoated with Vallejo Black/Brown (although you could use a 50/50 mix of Chaos Black and Scorched Brown) and highlighted by adding Kommando Khaki. Again, this produces quite a nice, realistic finish.

The cloaks on the vampire and Farseer were painted with a 50/50 mix of Regal Blue and Chaos black and shaded with pure Chaos Black. They were then highlighted by adding increasing amounts of Fortress Grey to the original mix. I also used the same technique on the black areas of my Bad Moon ork but with much sharper edge highlights in order to suggest the hardness of the metal.

Other Effects

As mentioned above, light reacts differently to different black surfaces and different materials will require different techniques. There are no hard and fast rules here, experimentation is required in order to achieve the effects you are looking for. Below is my attempt to paint an obsidian effect on my Dreadfleet volcano temple. As I wanted a really deep black colour I painted the whole thing with Chaos Black and added some extreme edge highlights using Adeptus Battle Grey followed by Codex Grey. This was to emphasis the reflectiveness of the surface and suggest the sharpness of the edges. Finally the whole thing was given a coat of gloss varnish to finish the effect.

I hope this post has been useful. As I say, this isn’t so much a guide as my own thoughts on painting black and I hope it helps to provide inspiration and spark your own ideas. If you have your own hints and tips on painting black drop me a line and let me know how you do it, I’m always on the look out for new techniques.

A few people were interested in how I went about painting the yellow armour plates on my Bad Moon ork so I took some step-by-step pictures. Essentially I just followed an ‘Eavy Metal guide on painting Bad Moon orks. Here are my thought on the painting process.

Step 1

First of all I basecoated the yellow areas with Tausept Ochre. Although GW’s advertising claims that Foundation Paints can cover any primer in one coat I find it much better to apply several thinned coats for a smoother finish. This stage is just to provide a solid base over which a much brighter, more vibrant yellow can be painted.

Step 2

I then painted over the basecoat with a 50/50 mix of Iyanden Darksun and Golden Yellow again using several thin layers. At this point the yellow isn’t much to look at.

Step 3

The armour was then shaded with Dark Flesh to give it a deep, rich orange tone.

Step 4

I then reapplied the mix from step 2 and highlighted it by adding Skull White. I didn’t take pictures of both of these stages as I was painting quite quickly in order to prevent the paint from drying out ( I hate it when a paint mix dried during painting and you have to try and replicate it). The photo above shows the armour after the final highlight stage.

This was quite an easy guide to follow and, I’m pleased to say, my version ended up very similar to the example in the book. This is a good way to paint quite a difficult colour.